Game Recap – Philadelphia 76ers @ New York Knicks

Special Edition Recap – At the game!

Hey there, Sixer Sense faithful! Being that I actually live in New York City and the Philadelphia 76ers played in Madison Square Garden tonight against the New York Knicks, I took this opportunity to go to the game and give my first-hand account. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as I planned.

Talk about a letdown after last night’s huge win over the Lakers. The Philadelphia 76ers came out with no energy on both ends of the court, losing tonight to the New York Knicks.

The final score hid how lopsided this was, since most of the game the Sixers hovered around 33% shooting for the game, while the Knicks were around 50%, with the Sixers getting better and the Knicks getting worse at the end of the game when it was already too late. The only Sixer that showed up tonight was Robert Covington who, even though he scored just 10 points, came in with the type of energy the rest of the Sixers were lacking. The entire Sixers team shot only 37.2%, and Nerlens Noel was especially frustrating, since most of the offense started with him. He tried going up against Robin Lopez early in the game but could not get anything going.

The rest of the Sixers could not chip in any way with everyone getting into the sloppy play. Watching the game, I could not remember anyone who did NOT struggle to get a coherent offense going. Isaiah Canaan, T.J. McConnell, and Phil Pressey had trouble one time or another to get clean looks for themselves or for their teammates.

On the other side, Kristaps Porzingis had a huge game for New York. The crowd in the Garden cheered every time he got the ball and he delivered with some spectacular plays, like his alley oop late in the game. This would have been a matchup Jahlil Okafor would have cherished, since Jah would love to prove that he can hang with taller players, especially since Jahlil had a poor showing against Kristaps in the preseason.

This was a game where the Sixers earned the loss, and it showed for most of the game.

Player of the Game

Robert Covington was the only player to show up for the 76ers and by default he gets the award.  He was the only player for Philly who wanted to compete, and converted some difficult shots to keep the Sixers in it.  Unfortunately he couldn’t do enough to keep it close, leading to the Sixers struggling for most of the night. Without their leading scorer in Jahlil, the Sixers were toast on offense.

Editor’s note: Richaun Holmes did well in a losing cause for the Sixers tonight.  While it wasn’t enough to tip the game in favor of Philly tonight, he only had 18 minutes of court time for the fourth time this season.  For the first time this season however, he took full advantage of his cameo appearance.

Bonus Video

So this happened: The Knicks had a special halftime show with a guest singer, and there comes Nik Stauskas wanting to shoot around prior to the second half. Too bad for him that he came out too early while the kid finished his song, and couldn’t put up anything farther than a layup.

Nice try Nik, but next time follow T.J.’s lead and give a round of applause next time.

Looking Ahead

The Sixers travel on Saturday to take on the Denver Nuggets while Jahlil serves his final game of his suspension, but Rookie of the Year candidate in Emmanuel Mudiay wants to prove he belongs at the front of the pack.